


Strawberry, Blueberry

by Crystalized_Flowers



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, It'll all make sense later promise :), M/M, Reincarnation soulmate au again, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate au again, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Strange former ships I know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-06
Updated: 2017-03-06
Packaged: 2018-09-28 13:24:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10103411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalized_Flowers/pseuds/Crystalized_Flowers
Summary: This is not the way it was supposed to happen.No matter how much Rin denied it, he is a romantic. And this is not the way he was supposed to meet his soulmate.He doesn't know what he was expecting exactly, but his soulmate certainly wasn't supposed to be soulmates with someone else and calmly informing him that his soulmate wasn't him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So...  
> Prompt by silentpeaches on tumblr: Your soulmate from the past life is not your soulmate in this life.  
> It's pretty simple but it got these wheels turning.  
> Enjoy~  
> My first Free! fic.

This is not the way it was supposed to happen.

No matter how much Rin denied it, he is a romantic. And this is  _not_ the way he was supposed to meet his soulmate.

He didn't know  _what_ exactly he was expecting, but it certainly isn't this.

In this world, there were a set amount of souls. Each soul had a soulmate. Every time a person died, the soul would wait in the afterlife until their soul was called to be reborn. Then, when they were reborn, they would have to find their soulmate once again to be truly happy. What made it easier though, was that each soul remembers pieces of the memories it has ever accumulated. You just had to find someone with the same memories of your past life as you. When you meet your soulmate and consciously recognize them _as_  your soulmate, you would regain _all_ of the memories your soul had and the half heart tattoo on your left hand would become whole.

Even in this seemingly perfect system, there were quite a few problems.

Due to the circumstances of soulmates, it is quite possible - and actually more likely - for soulmates to have age gaps. If one soul was reborn before the other, there would surely be age differences. But those were normal problems for soulmates in this world.

Rin is quite sure that his problem isn't normal.

It had been a pretty boring day, honestly. He is sitting in a cafe after practice, headphones on, twirling his straw absently in his smoothie. No one is bothering him, but he is feeling pretty annoyed, even in his haven, which was this cafe and his favorite strawberry smoothie in his hands. Why?

All around him, soulmates are chattering lovingly. And it makes him sick. Jeez. Take pity on the rest of the population who are still searching.

"Yo, Matsuoka!" Ok, he takes that back. Someone is bothering him.

"What do you want, Mikoshiba?" He grumbles, not bothering to raise his gaze to his former swim captain.

"Onii-chan! Don't be like that!" A feminine voice scolds and Rin groans, because their presences are practically the last thing he wants right now.

He finally looks up, meeting his younger sister's crimson eyes and his brother-in-law's golden ones.

"What do you two want?"

Gou sighs, sliding into the seat in from of her brother. She props her elbow up on the table and rests her head on her hand, her red eyes worried. "Look, onii-chan-"

"I know, Gou, you don't have to tell me all the time!"

She throws her hands up in the air. "But you mope around all the time! If you would just be more social and more approachable, you would have found your soulmate already! You just need to talk to more people!"

"It's not that easy!" Rin hisses. "My soulmate could be in a different country for all I know!"

"Onii-chan, kami-sama is not that cruel. Besides, even if they were, they would have came to Japan by now because your memories from most of your lifetimes are from Japan, right? It's common knowledge that soulmates usually try to meet up at where their memories are from. And besides, you already tried Australia."

Rin grits his teeth. He places his straw in his mouth and looks pointedly away from her.

Honestly, his twenty-two year old sister made it seem so easy. But for her, it really was. All she had to do was go visit her brother at his boarding school once and she immediately found her soulmate.

Rin just couldn't find his. He looked at all the single people on the street, but he honestly didn't feel an attraction to any of them. So where could his soulmate be?

He has gone through the memories that kami-sama had gifted him with in this lifetime multiple times. He remembers being a samurai, a regular businessman, heck, he remembers being a  _woman_ in one lifetime, and all of his lifetimes seem to center down in Japan.

And he himself was born in Japan as well. It was supposed to be  _easy_ for him. He would just stay in Japan and his soulmate would come eventually, right?

When they were children, Gou had often complained about how hard it was for her to find her soulmate. Since the memories are not in order, it is impossible to tell which memory was from which lifetime unless there were signs of the time period within the memory. She remembered being French, American, Chinese, Japanese, and Egyptian among others. How would she find her soulmate?

But by luck, it seemed that both her and her soulmate were born Japanese this time around, and they had met as if by fate. Gou had exclaimed happily that this had been the tenth time they had actually met throughout their seventeen reincarnations.

Rin had been surprised by the low number. It was just a feeling, but he was pretty sure that he and his soulmate had met every time in their past lives.

So why weren't they meeting now? Had kami-sama finally given up on them?

Gou watches her brother's slightly downcast expression before sighing again and standing up. She glances at her husband, who has been unexpectedly quiet this whole entire time and they nod in unison. She turns back to Rin, a stern look in her eyes.

"Onii-chan. Meet me here tomorrow night at seven o'clock sharp."

...

Gou brings him to a senpai that she knew from her high school. Rin has never met any of Gou’s friends from Iwatobi over the years, so it comes as a surprise to him that the senpai is a guy. A preschool teacher with a kind smile.

“I don’t understand how this is a crisis.” The brunet blinks at them as he smiles at one of his students as she said goodbye before heading out to her mother. “I mean, there are huge age gaps between soulmates all the time. Your soulmate may have not even been born yet.”

“No.” Rin shakes his head with a sigh. “I remember that my soulmate and I died in an accident together in our last lifetime, about three months before my birth in this lifetime.” The brunette’s emerald eyes flash with sympathy, but Rin ignores it. “Souls are reborn mostly chronologically. So we should have been born around the same time in this lifetime.”

“I… see. Well, I don’t really know what to tell you.” He turns to Gou. “Sorry, Gou-chan.”

" _Kou_!" She huffs before pouting. “But Makoto-senpai! Your soulmate case is also strange, right? I thought that you would be able to help!”

“Strange?” Rin is intrigued. But Makoto's full heart tattoo shows on his hand, so he probably overcame that obstacle.

“Ah, yeah.” The tall man nods with a slight smile. “My soulmate and I weren’t soulmates in our past lifetimes."

"Eh?!" Rin is shocked. Is that even possible? Soulmates were soulmates for a reason. "How-"

"I don't know either." Makoto smiles gently. "Haru and I were lucky that we grew up together or else we may have never found each other. Our souls were attracted to each other and we were soulmates but our memories weren't the same. And I knew that my past soulmate wasn't Haru. He was really energetic."

"Haruka-senpai is practically the opposite." Gou smiles as well. "I don't know how you two get along so well."

Rin barely understands what they are saying. His head is spinning. Soulmates can change?

Could his memories be rendered useless?

"Ah, I just discouraged you, didn't I?" Makoto waves his hands, slightly flustered. "Don't worry too much about it. No one else has had this happen to them before the two of us, so you should be fine. I guess the only thing I can tell you is to be patient."

Rin wants to groan in annoyance, but it would be rude in front of Makoto. Be patient?

He really isn't that type of person.

Makoto seems to be able to tell how Rin's thought process is going though, because he smiles gently again. "Actually, maybe Rei can help you. After all, he's a soulmate researcher. Gou-chan, why don't you take Matsuoka-kun to him tomorrow or some-"

Gou's eyes light up. "That's a great idea! We're going now! Bye, Makoto-senpai!" She calls over her shoulder as she drags her brother to the school exit. "Thanks!"

Makoto smiles fondly as he hears the siblings bickering as they leave before turning back to comfort a little boy who was crying because his mother hadn't come to pick him up yet.

...

"Rei-kun! Rei-kun! Oi,  _Rei-kun_! Are you home?!" Gou knocks furiously on the door of a perfectly symmetrical house.

"Why are you so insistent about this?" Rin grumbles, annoyed at being dragged to the other side of town to visit this Rei. "It's not even your soulmate."

She stops abruptly, before turning to her brother with a fierce look in her eyes, though it quickly softens. "I want you to be happy, onii-chan. And if you won't do anything to find your own happiness except mope, I'll find it for you!"

Rin stares back in surprise, unaware of all the concern and support he had been getting from his younger sister all this time. He feels a mixture of happiness, embarrassment, and guilt. Blushing slightly, he opens his mouth to thank her, but a voice interrupts them.

"Ahre? Is that Gou-chan? Why are you here so late?" The voice comes from behind them and they turn to face a blond man. He rubs his rose eyes, blinking at them. "And who's this?"

"It's  _Kou_ , Nagisa-kun!" The red-haired girl groans out, but quickly forgets about it. "Why are you home from work so late?"

The blond smiles energetically. "It was a busy day at the aquarium and I helped clean up!" He chirps cheerfully. "The penguins were all so happy! They-"

Gou cuts him off before he can continue to rant. "Anyway, Nagisa-kun, this is my older brother, Rin-"

"Nice to meet you, Rin-chan! I'm Nagisa!"

" _Rin-chan?!_ "

"-and he has some problems finding his soulmate, so we just want to talk to Rei. Is he out?" She finishes.

"Rei-chan?" Nagisa brings his left hand up to his chin in thought, making Rin painfully aware of the complete heart tattoo on his hand. "He should be. Rei-chan doesn't leave the house often since he does research in there too." He fishes his key out of his pocket and the Matsuoka siblings take a step back to allow him to open the door.

"Rei-chan?" He calls, but the house is dark and he receives no answer. Nagisa doesn't seem to be discouraged though, he simply turns on the lights and motions for Rin and Gou to follow him as he bounds towards a flight of stairs that seem to lead to the basement.

"Rei-chan?" He pokes his head through the door at the bottom of the stairs, Gou and Rin a step behind him since the staircase were too narrow for them all to crowd at the bottom.

"Wait, Nagisa-kun. One second. I'm just going to finish up." A distracted voice drifts towards them. "Continue, Haruka-senpai."

"My birthday in my past life was November 7th. On that day the year before I was born in this life, my soulmate was going to take me to the beach. He was a really competitive person and wanted to win at anything. So he told me that he would race me to the train station." A quiet voice broke the silence as Nagisa quieted.

Rin's eyes widen. It could just be a coincidence, but he remembers something similar.

_"Come on! I bet you can't beat me!"_

_"You-" His soulmate replied with a smile, exasperated but fond at the sight of his cheerful grin._

The voice continued, mostly emotionless but a bit somber and sad. "We lived in Tokyo. It was a really busy day. He was in a playful mood that day though, so he started running backwards to show off."

 _"You're underestimating me!"_   _His soulmate huffed, narrowing his eyes._

"We never made it to the train station though. When we were crossing the street, he still ran backwards, so he wasn't aware of the light changing colors and the car barreling towards him. I saw it though, and I leaped onto him to pull him out of the way."

_The call of his name and his soulmate's horrified face echoed in his mind as he felt a overwhelmingly powerful force ram into him. His vision went black, his last view being his soulmate's tearful and bloody face._

"I was too late though. He took the brunt of the impact, though I was badly hurt as well. He died almost immediately but they took me to the hospital to try and save me. It didn't work out though: I ended up dying on that day too."

Rin feels like he is in a trance. He doesn't realize that Gou is calling to him and Nagisa is watching him worriedly.

The voice stops and Rei's fills the silence, and he blinks as he returns to reality. "Thank you for your time, Haruka-senpai. It is greatly appreciate-"

Rin pushes past Nagisa, bursting through the door. Both Nagisa and Gou call after him. He finds himself in a basement furnished like a library. High shelves and books fill the room, along with a long desk which two men are currently seated at. They look up at the interruption and the one wearing glasses over his violet eyes clears his throat pointedly as Nagisa and Gou stumble in behind him.

"Excuse me, but who are you?"

That sounds like the voice that had been identified as Rei. Which means that the memories came from the other man, Haruka. Rin narrows his eyes at him. He has straight dark hair and ocean blue eyes, watching him expressionlessly, albeit with a little curiosity.  _Could this be him?_ "Oi, you."

Rei splutters at being ignored in his own house, but Haruka simply stares back at him calmly.

"Were those memories true?"

"So what if they are?" He challenges back and Rin can't help but grin slightly. He sounds more and more like his soulmate.

Haruka startles as Rin grins, noticing the sharp, pointy teeth that fill his mouth. "Shark teeth..." He mutters.

_"Hey, you know? Some people are reincarnated with same quirks or features every time!"_

_"Do you have one?"_

_"Yeah, actually. Guess!"_

_"I've seen your shark teeth in every lifetime."_

_He laughed. "Yep."_

Haruka hesitates for a moment, but he speaks Rin's name from their past life. Rin's eyes widen and he finds himself nodding unconsciously, and eagerly. If Haruka knows his name, that means they are soulmates, right? They've recognized each other's souls. This is it.

He waits to feel the bliss of being reunited with his soulmate again, for his broken heart tattoo to complete, but nothing happens. Rei glances between the two as all five occupants of the room freeze, waiting for something that will never occur.

Haruka breaks the silence with a small sigh. He speaks, his voice barely audible. "I'm sorry."

"W-what?"

"You're Gou's brother in this lifetime, right? Rin. I'm not your soulmate in this lifetime." He raises his left hand, showing his already complete tattoo. "I already have my memories."

That's the moment Rin's world crashes down on him. He doesn't know what he _was_ expecting exactly when he met his soulmate again, but his soulmate certainly wasn't supposed to be soulmates with someone else and calmly informing him that his soulmate wasn't him.

There's another beat of silence, and then Gou speaks shakily. "Wait. Wait. Hold up. Haruka-senpai. You were my brother's soulmate?"

"Through nineteen reincarnations." The black haired man returns dryly. "It doesn't seem like we made it to the twentieth one."

Rin can barely process what they are saying. "W-wait, so who is  _your_ soulmate?"

Haruka blinks nonchalantly. "Makoto."

 _Makoto?_   _That sweet preschool teacher?_ _So Haruka is who he was referring to when he said 'Haru?'_ He is the complete opposite of Rin. Rin can't help but find it strange that when kami-sama decided to cut Haruka and Rin's string of fate, he connected Haruka to Makoto.

"Ohhhh!" Nagisa speaks next, his voice bright even in the serious mood. "So Haru-chan used to be Rin-chan's soulmate? But now he's Mako-chan's, right? Doesn't that mean that Rin-chan can't use his memories to find his soulmate now? It could be someone else who has the same problem, or even Mako-chan's former soulmate!"

Nagisa practically sums up Rin's doom. His soulmate can be  _anyone_ , honestly. If his soulmate hadn't found  _his_ former soulmate yet and learned that they were not soulmates anymore, he wouldn't even  _know_ to search for someone who didn't have the same memories as him. But Gou doesn't think it's that bad.

"Wait! Nagisa-kun! That's it! If Haruka-senpai and Makoto-senpai are soulmates in this lifetime, can't onii-chan's soulmate be Makoto-senpai's former soulmate?"

"And it also might not be." Rin mutters dizzily, unable to keep up with the sudden turn of events.

"But it can!" And that's the end of that.

...

Rin spends the rest of the night getting to know the former Iwatobi Swim Club, Makoto coming over after the preschool hours finished. After his initial shock, he reminisces with Haru about past events, yet his soul doesn't tug him towards him. He watches Haruka's fingers sneakily intertwine with Makoto's, yet he feels nothing but relief that his former soulmate has found his partner. He slowly relaxes, and easily assimilates into the small group of friends.

Rin and Haruka's story is told to Makoto and though the brunette is surprised, he has nothing against Rin. Once Rin is at ease with the group, he brings up the topic of Makoto's former soulmate out of curiosity.

"What was he like?"

Makoto blinks at his question, but since all eyes suddenly focus on him, he answers. "He's very talkative and sometimes he says things that he shouldn't, but he's a sweet person, to sum him up."

In other words, the complete opposite of Haru. Why did kami-sama suddenly decided to pair opposites?

Noticing Rin's internal struggle, Makoto speaks up again. "I actually have met him before in this lifetime. He was devastated when I told him of the situation, but I think he's still determined to find his soulmate. I can introduce you guys and you guys can see if you are soulmates?"

He smiles wearily back. "Yeah, thanks."

...

He's on his way to the pool the next morning. Even with all of the soulmate drama going on in his life, Rin is still an Olympic swimmer. However, he simply can't focus and his coach orders him to take a break around noontime.

He sighs as he slips into a chair at the same cafe he went to two days before. He doesn't order anything, just sits by the window and stares out at the city streets of Tokyo, his music blaring in his headphones.

Minutes pass, and Rin is in his own little world, forgetting about his troubles. His glaze over red eyes watch absently as people walk to and fro, unconsciously noting all the couples on the street.

It's almost as if he's back to where he started. Perhaps worse.

"Ah! Irassaimase!" A voice calls out loudly from the counter as a man steps through the door, startling all occupants of the cafe out of their activities. The silver-haired cashier blushes slightly before paling in terror when a woman, seemingly the manager, comes out to apologize to the customers and scold the young man.

The rest of the customers resume what they are doing, but Rin can't help but be entranced the cashier. His voice is high-pitched, but not annoying, and even his strange bowl cut can't reduce from his beauty. His sparkling azure eyes are frantic as he bows hurriedly in apology to the manager and the beauty mark underneath his right eye is endearing.

If Rin had been in his right mind, he would have realized that ok. This was weird since the only time this had ever occurred to him in his previous lives were when he found Haru. The silver-haired man might be special.

Unfortunately, - or maybe fortunately - the only thing that _i_ _s_ in Rin's mind is finding a way to talk to  _him_. As soon as the irritated manager returns to the back rooms, Rin stands up to approach the counter.

"Hey."

The young man looks up with a polite smile as he reacts to Rin's voice. Being this close to him, Rin can tell that the man is around his age or even younger. His hair isn't exactly silver, but a lavender-gray color. His skin is flawless and his body is lean; he looks like a swimmer. But luckily, Rin is able to retain some kind of common sense, and orders a smoothie instead.

"What kind?" The man turns to the smoothie machines, and Rin is able to get a quick glimpse of his name tag.  _Nitori Aiichiro._

Now, Rin is all for strawberry smoothies. It's something that he hasn't strayed from in his history of getting smoothies. He has always gotten strawberry smoothies, as it matched his hair  _and_ his eyes. And also, strawberries tasted good.

But, this one time, he decides to try something else.

"Blueberry."

As he sips the lavender smoothie by the window, watching the inside of the cafe instead of the outside now, he can't help but think of how the blueberry smoothie tastes just right.

...

He comes back the next day, later this time because he actually manages to focus enough to make it through practice. He wonders why, but his issue with his soulmate isn't bugging his mind constantly anymore.

Luckily, Nitori seems to be doing a later shift that day, and he recognizes him as he walks through the door. "Ah, welcome back, sir!" He smiles.

Rin frowns at the term of address. "Matsuoka. Matsuoka Rin." He informs.

"Huh?"

"I don't like being called sir. Just use my name." He doesn't know why he does this, but he just lets the course of events play out.

"Ah, okay. Then, Matsuoka-san! You can just call me Nitori!"

He orders a blueberry smoothie again that day, and it happens to taste even better than the last one.

...

He becomes somewhat of a regular at the cafe after a week, and he finds out that Nitori's shifts have changed to being in the afternoon when Rin finishes practice every day. He used to work around noon, but another of his coworkers needed the shift. In the few times they chat, Rin finds out that Nitori is a Literature student at Tokyo University, the same as Rei. He's also the same age as Rei, Nagisa, and Gou. He is a kind and hardworking person, even though he does talk a bit too much.

But putting Nitori aside, today is the day. Makoto and Haruka had finally made plans with Makoto's former soulmate to meet at the same cafe Rin frequented. The time is an hour after his practice, so Rin still has time to just chill in the cafe before the soulmates show up.

"Ah, Rin-san!" Nitori smiles as Rin walks in. "The usual?"

Rin blinks at him but nods, and Nitori laughs. "I always wanted to try saying that, sorry." He grins before turning to make the blueberry smoothie.

Rin watches him, content bubbling in his chest. Honestly, it is strange, but he keeps feeling something around Nitori that he doesn't feel around anyone else. It's only been a week, but that feeling is definitely there.

Maybe it's an illusion. Or maybe his soul really is dragging him towards the silver-haired man?

Is it love? Attraction? He doesn't know. But he can't help wonder. Almost hoping.

Maybe, just maybe... his soulmate is Nitori?

Just as this thought forms in Rin's mind, he hears Nitori yelp in shock and surprise. He glances up immediately as the smoothie falls out of Niter's left hand, crashing to the floor, lavender liquid smearing over the tiles. But Nitori doesn't seem to register that, staring intently at the back of his hand instead.

A full heart.

Suddenly, memories rush into Rin's head. All of the memories are of his past lifetimes with Haru, but he knows that that is not what is important. The moment the nausea of his memories leave, he turns his gaze to his left hand, marveling at the heart tattoo that lies there.

It can't be.

"R-Rin-san?" He whips his gaze to meet Nitori - no, Ai's - shocked blue eyes. "You... You..."

Rin blinks. "You're my soulmate?" He asks slowly.

"I... I didn't know." Ai admits quietly after a beat of silence. "I... I was just thinking that it would be nice if you are my soulmate, and this..." He gestures to his hand. "...happened."

Rin blushes slightly. "I was thinking the same." He mutters in embarrassment.

There's an awkward silence, but it is quickly broken as two people appear behind them. "Matsuoka-kun! Ai!" A gentle voice calls.

Both men turn and stare at Makoto and Haruka, who are standing behind them, their hands gripped firmly. However the grips soon loosens and drops as Makoto gapes at the scene while even Haruka seems mildly surprised.

"Wait- you two know each other? And are your soulmate marks complete? What happened to you two? How-" Makoto begins babbling almost incoherently until Haruka muffles his voice with his hand.

"Are you two..." He asks simply, trailing off meaningfully.

"Y-yeah, apparently." Rin can't really believe that this is happening.

Makoto pulls Haruka's hand away from his mouth, emerald eyes sparkling. "This is amazing! You two really are soulmates!"

"Congratulations." Haruka adds in monotone.

As they continue to talk, Rin drifts away. He can barely believe it. He has found his soulmate despite all the odds stacked up against them. It is truly an amazing feat, especially with how their strings of fate were switched.

He finally smiles fully, unburdened.

Tuning out Makoto and Haruka's chatter, he turns to Ai, who is still half in shock behind the counter.

"Hey, Ai." The cashier blushes slightly at the use of his nickname. "The usual."

Ai stares back at him in surprise for a moment, before his own smile creeps onto his face. He turns back to the smoothie machines, picking up a new cup as he goes. "One blueberry, coming right up!"

**Author's Note:**

> Oh my god, what is this piece of trash.  
> I'm so sorry, at least it's fluff instead of my usual angst. The second half is so badly written because I'm tired yet I'm determined to finish.  
> The story's moods changed like *snap* and I was like what have I done...  
> Unbeta'ed duh.  
> I shall go sleep now, but I hope you liked it despite its many, many faults.  
> ~Crystal


End file.
